1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates, in general, to the field of media drives for a personal computer and, in particular, to media drives designed to occupy a small volume of space in a computer.
2. Discussion of the Art
Reduction of size is a major objective in the design of components for personal computers. Floppy drives today require far less room than their predecessors when the first personal computers were announced. Nonetheless, pressures continue, particularly for portable computers, to reduce size. Indeed, many portable computers have bays which receive switchable drives (e.g. a battery or a hard drive or a floppy drive may use the same bay) or provide external drives removably connected by a cord to reduce the size and awkwardness of the basic computer package. Switching or externally connecting drives is, however, an inconvenience and increases the possibility that the drive is not with the computer at the desired time. Reducing drive size has become increasingly challenging because certain media form factors such as those for the three and a half inch floppy disk and the Zip.RTM. disk have become standards and drives must accommodate those media packages to satisfy customers.